I love being right. A few months ago I went to see a preview performance of The Pirate Queen. It's the story of the first female Irish captain, and the Queen of England (sort of). It was produced by the RiverDance folks, and written by the Les Mis folks. I'm not going to completely reiterate how I felt about it (see my review in the archives!) but let me just sum it up with a simple "I Hated It".It has been announced that it will give it's last performance on June 17th, after 32 previews and 85 performances. Normally I would say that it's not such a bad try. BUT the show ran up a reported 15 Million-Dollar bill! I bet the producers are kicking themselves now!
Let this be a lesson to the rest of the theater world - Don't Turn BAD Dance Shows into Worse Musical Theater!
Last Thursday, Lance Bass of N'SYNC fame came out (haha) to see Legally Blonde with a "special friend". I don't know who this guy is, but GOOD FOR LANCE! He's a hottie... This is Lance with his new beau and the dogs, and another with him and the Tony-nominated Laura Bell Bundy. (Source)
On Monday night, the American Theater Wing held a benefit to honor Carol Channing, Tommy Tune, and Darth Vader…
Ok, so maybe I'm not as well versed in Broadway History as I should be. But I know Tommy Tune. And I KNOW Carol Channing. But James Earl Jones? Really?! I thought he was a film star… So like a good theater-nerd I looked up his Broadway past. Come to fine out - he won 2 Tony Awards and multiple Drama Desk, Theater World, and other various critics' awards.
Looks like it turned out to be quite the event! Here are some photos of the Honorees and their guests.
It's fun to see Josh Strickland and Jenn Gambatese (from Disney's Broadway version of Tarzan) out and about! Their show is a dud, so they don't get many photo ops!
It's always great to see Raul Esparza. Doesn't he look fantastic in a Tux?
Last night, the cast of Tony Nominated 110 In The Shade performed at Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center. Their cast recording released yesterday, so the event was a mix of "Hey, look what we recorded!" and "Hey, Audra is going to win another Tony!
I was able to get a quick video of her singing "Simple Little Things". It's only 15 seconds long, and I accidentally shot mostly just the ceiling. Oops! In my defense, I was being covert!
Also last night were the Theater World Awards. They celebrate Broadway and Off-Broadway debut performances, and among the honorees were Jonathan Groff, Fantasia Barrino (pictured with Barbara Cook) and Gavin Lee. The ceremony was held at New World Stages. Here are a few photos from the event. You can click here for even more...
John Tartaglia, Michael Cerveris, and Raul Esparza were all in attendance as former winners, and presenters. You know me, I can't pass up a good photo op of my favorite leading men!The love of my life was immortalized at Groman's Chinese Theater in LA yesterday. Along with other cast mates, George Clooney put his feet hands and pen to the concrete. I tell you, I would love for him to put ANY of the above to me…!
He is the King of Cool; this generations Frank Sinatra. MSNBC ran an article comparing the two. I didn't know a whole lot about Frank outside of his music, so I thought it was pretty amusing. Read the article here!
Today was the Stars In The Alley concert over at the Shubert Alley (next to the theaters currently housing Spamalot and Year of Magical Thinking). I took a quick outing from my office to check out the festivities… Here are a few video clips! The crowd was huge, so they're not the best. But I did the best I could!
Christopher Sieber and Marin Mazzie - "The Song That Goes Like This" from Spamalot
Ashley Parker Angel - "It Takes Two" from Hairspray!
Heather Laws, Robert Cunningham, and Amy Justman - "Not Getting Married Today" from Company
Lea Solanga - "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables
I also saw Caralee Carmelo sing from Mama Mia!; the current stars of Phantom; the current Matron Mama Morton from Chicago; Annaliese Van der Pol, the current Belle from Beauty and the Beast; and the current Nala from The Lion King sang "Shadowlands" and was awesome! There were still going to be more performances, but I had to get back to the office. Wah Wah...
Seriously the BEST lunch break I've EVER taken! Lol At the beginning they were giving an award to the Actor's Fund for something, and I wish they would've saved it til the end so I could've seen more. Oh well. I saw Lea Solanga! Woot woot!
I'm so glad that I finally found out how to get my cell phone videos onto YouTube! Here is a video of my super-cute nephew last weekend, sneaking up on my Diet Coke…
Ok, I admit, I could've probably stopped him. But it's so funny! Ugh, I'm a bad Nano…
Tonight is the premiere of Public Theater's "Romeo & Juliet". I can't wait to see it. I doubt I'll be seeing it tonight, but soon! It's free, but I think you still have to get tickets in advance. In fact, I think that you can only get tickets the day of the performance. I'm going to have to figure out how to finagle that one. But don't worry; I'll think of something!
I'm not sure what I'll end up doing tonight. "So You Think You Can Dance"? Probably. Katie has an event over on the East Side that I may go to with her, but I haven't heard back from her yet... I guess, yet again, I'm playing it by ear. Good thing I live in a city with lots of possibilities!
Have a Nice Day!
1 comment:
First things first... When are they going to leave poor Carol Channing's corpse alone. She's been dead for the better part of a decade. Leave her in the ground. Stop digging her up for every little Broadway event.
Secondly, As much as I hate Les Miserables right now... that was an awesome clip.
And lastly, how did you not know about James Earl Jones?
Bad Gay... Bad!
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